KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Royals might have found their answer at second base. The Royals and veteran Omar Infante reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract Friday night, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the contract. The deal was first reported by Fox Sports. Royals general manager Dayton Moore has said throughout the off-season that upgrading at second base was a priority. Kansas City used six players at the position last season, though none did enough to make the Royals feel comfortable moving forward. Infante, who turns 32 on Dec. 26, would stabilize second base in Kansas City for the first time in years. He hit .318 with 10 homers and 51 RBIs in 118 games for Detroit last season. Infante received substantial interest from the New York Yankees, who were seeking a replacement for Robinson Cano. But the Yankees were hesitant to give Infante more than three years, and the Royals decided to give the versatile infielder an extra year to help consummate the deal. The Royals signed left-hander Jason Vargas to a $32 million, four-year deal in November to help replace Ervin Santana, who is likely to sign elsewhere in free agency. The deals for Vargas and Infante push the notoriously frugal Royals beyond $90 million in payroll for next season — a club record, assuming they dont make any moves to trim salary. Moore has said he expects payroll to be "about the same" as last season, which was roughly $82 million. But hes also said the Royals can be flexible if the right opportunity arises. Infante played all of his games at second base for Detroit last season, but the former All-Star also has logged significant time at shortstop and third base while playing a bit in the outfield. Hell play the majority of his time at second base in Kansas City, where Emilio Bonifacio, Jamey Carroll, Chris Getz, Johnny Giavotella, Elliot Johnson and Miguel Tejada each tried to fill in last season. They combined to hit .243 with just four home runs. The fallback plan for the Royals was to go into next season with Bonifacio as their primary second baseman, but hell likely become a utilityman now. The Royals are certainly familiar with Infante from having watched him play for their AL Central rival Detroit. Infante came up with the Tigers in 2002, and then was traded to the Cubs and Braves before landing back in Detroit two years ago, when he helped the Tigers win an American League pennant. Infante is batting .279 with 74 homers and 421 RBIs over his 12-year career. Hes never played more than 149 games in a season, and missed more than a month last year with an ankle injury that occurred when the Blue Jays Colby Rasmus slid aggressively into his leg. Bran... 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Jamar Taylor Jersey .com) - The struggling Florida Panthers slow start to the season cost head coach Kevin Dineen his job.SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said he was worried about facing a team coached by one of his former assistants and that employs his signature zone defence. Jerami Grant helped ease those nerves in a hurry. Making his first start of the season and 10th of his career, the sophomore forward scored 11 points in the first 7 minutes as the No. 2 Orange built an early 20-point lead and beat Eastern Michigan 70-48 on Tuesday in the final nonconference game for both teams. It was a far cry from Saturday, when Syracuse trailed then-No. 8 Villanova 25-7 before rallying for a 78-62 victory. "We just wanted to come out and be aggressive," said Grant, who started in place of injured Dajuan Coleman and finished with 15 points. "We didnt want to let them get to a big lead like we did against Villanova. We just came out aggressive, but we kind of let up after that." Syracuse (13-0), one of seven unbeaten teams in Division I, has won 51 straight nonconference games in the Carrier Dome and begins its first season of play in the Atlantic Coast Conference at home against Miami on Saturday. "We really have come through this first 13 games as well as you could ever hope for," Boeheim said. "We played some really good teams. Its ironic the one game we could have lost was St. Francis. Weve put ourselves in the best position we could possibly put ourselves in." Rakeem Christmas matched his career high with 15 points, C.J. Fair finished with 13 points and eight rebounds, and Trevor Cooney had 10 points for the Orange. Freshman point guard Tyler Ennis, second nationally in assist to turnover ratio (4.69), matched his season high with nine assists to go with two turnovers and pulled down five rebounds but did not score. Glenn Bryant led Eastern Michigan (7-5) with 19 points and eight rebounds and Raven Lee had 12 points. Leading scorer Karrington Ward had five points, 10 below his average, on 2-of-10 shooting. Former Syracuse centre DaShonte Riley, a 7-footer, was a nonfactor, failing to score or snare a rebound in 15 minutes of play. The Orange put together a 19-4 spurt as the Eagles sputtered mightily, making just 3 of their first 16 shots and committing eight turnovers in the opening 12 minutes. After Darell Combs hit a 3 to pull Eastern Michigan to 11-6, Cooney started the Syracuse run with a 3 from the left wing and Fair and Grant followed with dunks to give Syracuse an 18-6 lead at 13:28.dddddddddddd Christmas converted a lay-in to complete a pretty passing play under the basket with Ennis and Tyler Roberson and boost the Orange lead to 30-10 at 7:33. "I knew with Jerami starting it makes them better offensively," Eastern Michigan coach Rob Murphy said. "He was able to get into the high post and create some havoc. When we figured that out, it was a game." The Orange got sloppy after their spurt, committing five turnovers, Christmas was called for two fouls, and Ennis missed the front end of a 1-and-1 as the Eagles clawed back with a 15-6 surge keyed by two three-point plays from Bryant. "The first four minutes determined a lot," Bryant said. "We came out kind of sluggish and were down so much. We just talked to each other, said we had to bring more energy, consistency, and we were able to fight and get back into the game." In the final 80 seconds of the period, Fair and Christmas missed dunks and Grant was called for goaltending. A pair of free throws by Mike Talley with 1.7 seconds left narrowed the Oranges lead to 36-27 at the break. EMU moved within 36-30 in the first minute of the second half when Talley drained a 3-pointer from the wing, but Christmas responded with a putback, Fair sank two free throws, and Cooney hit his second 3 of the game to give the Orange a 12-point lead less than 4 minutes in. After Lees 3-pointer closed the gap to 44-37 at 15:53, Syracuse responded with a 14-2 run to clinch it. Christmass putback capped it at 7:46 and gave the Orange a 58-39 edge. Syracuse committed 13 turnovers, finished 3 of 14 from long range, Fair missing all five he attempted, and misfired on 10 of 25 free throws. "We started to play at a very high level," Boeheim said. "We played at a very low level the rest of the game. Its something to think about. I think we felt we had the game under control and offensively settled a little bit. They made a couple of good offensive plays. We had a really bad stretch at the end of the first half, made some turnovers we dont usually make." Coleman, who has a contusion in his left leg, watched the game dressed in sweats on the Syracuse bench. Hes been receiving treatment for the injury and Boeheim called the injury day-to-day. cheap nfl jerseys wholesale nfl jerseys wholesale nfl jerseys cheap nfl jerseys cheap nfl jerseys ' ' '